


The Symbiote’s Guide to the Galaxy

by Bakageta



Category: Venom (Movie 2018)
Genre: Alien Abduction, Alien Biology, Canon-Typical Body Horror, Gen, Other, Outer Space, Panic Attacks, i'm not your boss, read the relationship however you like
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-02-12
Updated: 2020-02-12
Packaged: 2021-02-28 00:49:02
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,094
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22685011
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Bakageta/pseuds/Bakageta
Summary: “Venom?”Yes, Eddie?“Did we get abducted by the fucking greys?”There was a slick feeling as Venom searched for context in Eddie’s brain.Of course not, those do not exist.“Then what are--”We were abducted by Piradians.Obviously, their tone implied.-----Eddie and Venom get abducted by aliens.
Relationships: Eddie Brock & Venom Symbiote, Eddie Brock/Venom Symbiote
Comments: 32
Kudos: 239
Collections: Venomtime's Day 2020





	The Symbiote’s Guide to the Galaxy

**Author's Note:**

  * For [cupidsbow](https://archiveofourown.org/users/cupidsbow/gifts).



> Thanks to cupidsbow for organizing the Holiday gift Exchange and running the community Dreamwidth. I might not be able to record a podfic, but I can fill your prompt from last year.
> 
> Thanks to [sajastar](https://archiveofourown.org/users/sajastar/pseuds/sajastar) for betaing, you're awesome!

“I hate this,” Eddie announced to the corpses on the floor and the universe at large.

He was naked, prone, and strapped down to a table that was ergonomically designed for someone slightly bigger than himself. The temperature was on the warm side of uncomfortable, and Eddie was sweating just enough that he knew he was going to stick to the table’s surface when he finally got loose. Venom was hard at work forcing his liver and kidneys into overtime to process whatever they’d been drugged with. The increase in their metabolism was also very much not helping with the sweating.

“This is terrible.” 

**Quit whining,** Venom grouched. **At least you do not have to taste this shit.**

“It can’t be worse than lying face down, naked, strapped to the world’s worst massage table.”

**First, it is worse** . A sour, bitter, metallic flavor coated Eddie’s tongue, as if a handful of pennies had curdled.  **Second, this is not a massage table.**

“Eughh, I don’t want to think about it! Can’t you just break the restraints?”

**I am not done purging your bloodstream. You will just fall off the table.**

“I feel fine, just let me up.”

Eddie got a feeling of rolling eyes and an exasperated sigh, but Venom pulsed along his chest and limbs for a fraction of a second. They snapped all of the bindings simultaneously, and returned their attention to filtering the rest of the drugs from Eddie’s bloodstream.

Abruptly, Eddie realized that he might have unknowingly lied when he said he felt fine. Everything felt contradictory, like his body was stiff and floaty at the same time, but Eddie was pretty sure the feeling would work itself out once he got up. He didn’t hesitate to try to at least roll onto his back. Instead, his shoulder and hip jerked while his elbow and knee stayed locked straight, and he flopped onto the floor like a dying fish. 

**I told you so,** Venom said like they were five.

“Yeah. Thanks.”

Lying mostly on his back on the floor, he had a better view of the room. 

It was small in a way that could charitably be called cozy and accurately be called cramped, and most of the space was taken up by the table that Eddie had been strapped down on. There were three feet or so of floor space around it before counters rose up from the floor. Presumably there were computers, instrumentation, and lab equipment of some kind on them, but Eddie couldn’t really see from the floor.

What he could see were the corpses lying on the opposite side of the table from him.

**They did not expect me,** Venom commented idly.

There were two of them, which was odd. Eddie had assumed there’d been four of them. He had felt four pairs of hands before Venom had woken up enough to spike out of his body and kill them. There was a reason for that, it turned out: each body had four arms. The lower pair was smaller and would be almost hidden by the larger upper arms, but both were clearly visible from Eddie’s spot on the floor. Both bodies were wearing some kind of silvery grey suit that covered them entirely, and each had a vaguely oval shaped helmet with large black spots on either side, like an insect’s compound eyes. Each helmet also had a hole running straight through it where Venom had pulverized whatever had been inside.

“Venom?” It would have been very easy to hyperventilate, so Eddie did his best not to.

**Yes, Eddie?**

“Did we get abducted by the fucking greys?” Breathe in through the nose and out through the mouth, easy. Just like he’d been doing his entire life.

There was a slick feeling as Venom paused their filtering to search for context in Eddie’s brain.

**Of course not, those do not exist.**

“Then what are--”

**We were abducted by Piradians.** Obviously, their tone implied.

“Oh, of course, what was I thinking?” Why couldn’t it have been a normal, human abduction? Why did Eddie have to be the one kidnapped by aliens?

**You were mostly thinking about not breathing too much.**

A horrible thought occurred to Eddie.

“We--we’re not in space. Right?”

Venom didn’t answer immediately. Instead they seeped out of Eddie’s body slightly and formed a layer between him and the floor.

“What are you doing?”

**Checking vibrations. Feel this.** They presented their sensations to Eddie and he was suddenly able to feel the slight pulsing vibrations and buzzing rhythms as they flowed through the floor. None of it meant anything to him, though.

**This,** they focused on a deep rumble,  **is the sublight engine. And this,** a pulse so rapid it was nearly continuous,  **is the gravity manipulator. The rest are various life support systems. The supralight engine is either offline or not present.**

**So, yes, we are in space.**

“O-oh… Great… I’m jus--just gonna think about breathing for awhile.”

**I will calm you down once I finish dealing with the myospastic and body-dissociative agents.**

Eddie didn’t respond.

Instead he started thinking about how counting was also a great method of breath control. Breathe in for a four count. Hold for seven. Exhale for an eight count. Repeat. 4-7-8 was really good for stress reduction. But it was also really good for helping you get to sleep, and he probably shouldn’t go to sleep on an alien ship that was who knows where in fucking outer space and--

Maybe diaphragmatic breathing would work better? It had worked really well in the past. He used to do it all the time. He would lie on his back on the floor of his apartment and breathe while listening to Mrs. Chen’s cousin’s Mandarin meditation CDs. The only thing that might be an issue was that he needed to put one hand on his chest and the other on his stomach. Eddie couldn’t do that because he couldn’t move his--

Going back to counting, Eddie could do equal breathing. Inhale and exhale through the nose for an equal count. Make your breathing as smooth and steady as you can. Pause between breaths if you need to. Eddie hadn’t actually used the technique, he’d tried the others first and they’d worked well enough that he hadn’t bothered. There was no reason not to--

**I am finished, Eddie. You can stand up now.**

It was like his mind was a stopped sink of emotion. Venom opened up the drain and all of Eddie’s fear and anxiety and everything else flowed out and left him feeling nothing. Venom had hated that analogy when Eddie had come up with it. They insisted it was more like a soft reset, overwhelming emotions there one moment and gone the next. Either way Eddie always hated how blank he felt for a few moments afterwards while everything reset.

“Ugh… So what now? How screwed are we?” Eddie asked as he stood up, only a little wobbly. They felt fairly sated and the corpses were gone now, so at least dinner had been taken care of.

**We need to get to the bridge. I can figure out how screwed we are once we get there.**

“Can we find my stuff, first?”

**Your phone and wallet are on that shelf over there.** They turned Eddie’s head toward a shelf near an inset portion of the wall that was presumably a door.  **The Piradians disintegrated your clothing in case of contaminants.**

“Wonderful...” That must have happened before Eddie’d woken up being touched by way too many hands.

**I can be your clothes,** Venom offered as Eddie retrieved his wallet, phone, and keys.  **I will even make pockets for all of your crap.**

Normally Eddie would be against Venom acting as his only clothes. Mainly because there were too many unexpected loud noises in San Francisco, but also because it struck him as kind of ungrateful. Thanks for saving the planet and also me; please be my pants.

**You do not have a choice if you do not want to leave your genitals hanging out, and it is not ungrateful if I am the one offering.**

“Fine, but just until I can get some real clothes.”

**Of course.**

It took barely a second for Venom to press out of his pores and imitate the look of a pair of black jeans and one of Eddie’s older tourist shirts (Smile! San Francisco!!) except in monochrome. The feel was off, way too soft and comfortable, but Eddie’s never had cause to complain about that particular inaccuracy. Tendrils reached out from where pockets should be and retrieved Eddie’s things from his hands.

The inset portion of the wall did turn out to be a door. It was securely locked, but that had never stopped Venom before and it didn't stop them now. There were just more sparks than usual. The former door, now archway, opened to a low hallway with sets of paired doors on either side. It ended in another door about twenty five feet away that looked just as secure as the one Venom had ripped apart.

**This is a standard extra-light research vessel. The bridge should be at the other end of the hall.**

“How do you even know that?”

**I have been on several.**

“Huh… I hadn’t really thought you would have much experience with spaceships. What with the whole asteroid thing.”

**Eddie, I am a symbiotic alien from beyond the Milkyway. I have more experience than you with everything in space.**

**Now stop stalling,** they said, twitching the muscles of Eddie’s legs and coating the soles of his feet like they might take that first step for him.

“Fine, fine. I’m going,” Eddie grumbled as he stepped beyond the former doorway. 

It was quiet, just the unfamiliar churning of the spaceship that Eddie was only aware of because he was wearing Venom’s sound sensitive body as clothes. There was a bit of comfort in that, in Venom interpreting for him. Partly because if they didn’t then Eddie would be too swamped with sensory information to do anything, but also because it was their way of reassuring him. 

Listen, they said wordlessly, everything sounds normal, nothing is about to break down, and all the parts of this ship are working as they should. No one but us breathes. I can hear it and taste it, and because I can, so can you. We are as safe as we can be in this bubble of atmosphere, and if anything does happen, I am here. 

They made the short walk down the corridor easy, and Eddie thanked them without words. He smiled and leaned into the trust and surety he had for them. They had his back and he knew it.

The door to the ship’s bridge opened when they got close enough. The Piradians obviously hadn’t expected their subject to fight back. The bridge was as cramped as everything else on the ship: little more than two seats surrounded by banks of buttons and switches and viewscreens. The controls crept up the walls on either side of the two seats and framed a view of the wide open void of space.

Eddie’s breath caught in his lungs for a moment. For a brief second he almost expected another panic attack, but it didn’t happen. Instead Eddie realized how terrifyingly small he was in the face of all the stars speckled across the void, some of them so dim with distance that he knew Venom must have been flickering across his eyes to let him see them. Each star could be the center of a system of planets full of life, and he could see thousands--hundreds of thousands--of them just from this angle. It made Eddie’s fears of the hard vacuum outside the research ship seem distant, like it was impossible to be afraid when confronted with this first hand view of the universe’s sprawling expanse.

The stars began to shift in front of Eddie and belatedly realized that Venom had stretched out from him to the controls. The ship rotated until Mars came into view with Earth visible in the distance.

“Sorry,” Eddie said quietly as he lowered himself into the seat closest to the control panels Venom seemed to be most focused on, “I got a little distracted.”

**Understandable.** Venom filled out behind him, adjusting the seat to fit a human’s frame.  **We are not too far away. We will be home in a few hours.**

“Good, Anne and Dan are never going to believe this.”

**Author's Note:**

> Comments and kudos are welcome!
> 
> I'm on [tumblr](https://bakageta.tumblr.com/), come say hey!


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